According to Yonhap:
The volume of goods brought into South Korea from a joint factory park in North Korea has remained unchanged despite Seoul’s trade ban slapped on Pyongyang in May in retaliation for its deadly attack on a South Korean warship, the government here said Tuesday.
The volume of products transported from the Kaesong industrial park stood at 6,953 tons in June, compared to 7,004 tons a month earlier when South Korea banned trade with North Korea and cut the number of South Korean workers staying in the North Korean border town, the Unification Ministry said in a release.
“There has been little difference in the amount of manufactured products brought in since the May 24 measures,” which the South imposed after a multinational investigation found the North responsible for the March sinking of the Cheonan, it said.
Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said currency conversions for the data were not immediately available.
North Korea has denied any responsibility for the attack in the Yellow Sea that left 46 sailors dead. About 121 South Korean firms operate in Kaesong, employing 44,000 North Korean workers — the last remaining major symbol of detente between the divided countries.
According to the ministry that handles cross-border affairs, the amount of goods brought into South Korea for the first half of this year nearly doubled compared to the same period last year. The figures signaled the Kaesong factory park continued to grow even though the relations between the Koreas have soured since 2008.
But many of the Kaesong companies have complained of falling orders and are seeking rescue funds, arguing the deteriorating political relations are increasingly becoming a liability for their businesses.
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Influx of goods from inter-Korean factory park stays consistent: gov’t
Yonhap
Sam Kim
7/20/2010
